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Is LGP Going the Way of Loki Software?

Posted by Soulskill on from the bad-news-bears dept.

An anonymous reader writes "After the demise of Loki Software, Linux Game Publishing sprouted up in its place, and for the past nine years has ported a number of games to Linux. But LGP may now be sharing the same fate as Loki. Linux Game Publishing hasn't updated its blog or news pages in months, has stopped responding to e-mails, and its only active ports are games they began work on in 2002/2003."

5 of 124 comments (clear)

  1. Is this really surprising? by SkOink · · Score: 5, Insightful

    When Wine is good enough to run Warcraft 3, what market is there for a company selling ports of decade-old games for $40-$50 each?

    --
    ---- I'll take you in a Hunt deathmatch any day.
    1. Re:Is this really surprising? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I think the point is that it's cheaper to make a game run under WINE than it is to do a full native port. Games don't require any platform integration, so no one cares if they aren't using native widgets - in fact, they're more likely to complain when they do. If you care about the Linux market, just add a guy to your QA team who tests it under WINE and pay a couple of consultants to add the missing features to WINE (or just get your devs to avoid them). It's much cheaper than paying a third-party company to do a full port.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  2. Speculations anyone? by Lotana · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Well the article does little more than point out that LGP are not responding to hails and stopped updating their information. There is really no concrete facts to conclude that they are finished, thus all we can do from here is guess.

    So lets say they are dead (Which might not be the case), what do you think killed them?

    Could it be that there is just not enough Linux gamers that are willing to pay to see Windows games on their platform to sustain a porting company?

    Could the original Windows publishers be at fault? Perhaps they are not willing to share the code for the porting purposes.

    Could it be just a case of poorly run company that finally had their decisions catch up to them?

    Really with so little information any guess is as good as another.

    Aside: Anyone know why Loki folded? A quick search only states "financial troubles", which is not really helpful.

  3. LGP Still Lives! by flnca · · Score: 4, Informative

    LGP's blog shows that the company is still active. Last update was from April 5, 2010.

  4. News post update from the site: by PBoyUK · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Wed, June 23 2010
    Is grateful to Slashdot for finally noticing that LGP exists, after militantly ignoring any game release we have made for the last 5 years, as soon as reports of our death come through, we get a front page story. Slashdot - Your support of Linux is inspirational. For others who wonder, we are very much alive. We have had a couple of staffing issues, but work is progressing on more than one unannounced title. We will offer furether updates as and when there is news to update you with."

    Seems like ya'll have hit a nerve! For me, I've bought 2 LGP games in the past, and enjoyed them, though they were certainly not AAA titles. I do wish they were more forthcoming with information though.